What is an Easter Egg?

Easter eggs are painted hard-boiled eggs or egg-shaped chocolates filled with something nice, and they are hidden (supposedly by the Easter Bunny) for kids to find on Easter morning. For Christians, the Easter egg symbolizes a lot of things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Traditionally, hard-boiled eggs were painted red to represent the blood that Jesus shed on the cross.
• The shell represents the sealed tomb of Christ.
• Cracking an Easter egg open stands for the resurrection of Jesus.
• Egg rolling, a traditional game, represents the rolling away of the stone that sealed Jesus’ tomb.

While the Easter egg is associated with Christianity, particularly the celebration of Easter, there are pieces of evidence that the tradition of painting and decorating hard-boiled eggs goes back farther than Christianity itself.

For instance, ancient pagans in Europe celebrated the return of the Sun God during the Spring Equinox with dyed eggs. Other cultures used Easter eggs even before they were called as such to symbolize fertility, life, and rebirth.

These days, however, when Easter eggs are mentioned, it’s not all the time that those associated with Easter are the ones being talked about.

There are Easter eggs in movies, TV shows, books, and video games. Online, there are Easter eggs on forums, blogs, and Google. If you search well enough, you might come across Easter eggs while using an Android phone and giving Alexa a command or asking her a question!

While all of them sort of need to be found just like Easter eggs during a hunt, they don’t look like Easter eggs as we know them. Keep on reading to know more about Easter eggs in a wide variety of forms and media.

What is a Helicopter Easter Egg Drop?

For some organizers of Easter egg hunts, gone are the days when they had to hide colorful Easter eggs in various places and allow kids to find all of them afterward. For them, it’s more fun and exciting to simply drop Easter eggs from helicopters to stadiums, parks, and fields below.

Helicopter Easter eggs aren’t real — they are plastic Easter eggs filled with treats. These Easter eggs won’t hurt kids — they are dropped from helicopters while the little ones are watching the spectacle from one side of the venue.

Most of the time, various church groups are the ones that organize helicopter Easter egg drops, and some of them have been doing it since the 70s.

However, it is said that the first of its kind took place in the mid-60s when a helicopter dropped thousands of chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs on a shopping mall’s parking lot in Hammond, Indiana.

What is an Average Amount of Eggs per Child for an Easter Egg Hunt?

No matter if you are planning a traditional Easter egg hunt or one that involves a helicopter, just like what we just talked about, it’s important that you provide plenty of Easter eggs for all the participants.

As a general rule of thumb, there should be 10 to 15 eggs per child for an Easter Egg Hunt. So, for example, you should come up with and hide 200 to 300 Easter eggs in a hunt consisting of 20 kids. Other than the Easter eggs themselves, you should also provide baskets for everyone, although you may also request them to bring their own baskets.

So, can you provide less or more than the recommended number of eggs per child for an Easter egg hunt? Absolutely! However, having fewer Easter eggs can make for a quick Easter egg hunt.

On the other hand, having more Easter eggs may leave the kids tired and exhausted, causing them to give up and look for another activity.

What is an Easter Egg Roll?

An Easter egg hunt is not the only game that involves Easter eggs. There’s also what’s called “Easter egg roll.”

The mechanics are quite simple, and the name of the game pretty much says it all: the players need to roll their eggs down the hill, and the owner of the egg that reaches the finish line first is the winner.

To make a game of Easter egg roll more fun, here are some of the things that people do:

• The decoration of every player’s Easter eggs is made a part of the game.
• The players are allowed to cheat by throwing their Easter eggs.
• The owner of the Easter egg with the least damage is considered the winner.

In the US, the Easter egg roll is a yearly event hosted by the President of the United States and the First Lady of the United States. The contestants are composed of kids 13 years of age and younger as well as their parents. The annual event is held on the White House South Lawn, and it’s been a tradition since 1814.

What is an Easter Egg in Video Games?

Easter eggs can be hidden not only in mailboxes, fruit baskets, boots, or potted plants. They can also be hidden in TV shows, movies, music, and software.

However, the appearance of Easter eggs found in all sorts of media types is believed to have begun with video games.

Many hardcore and casual video gamers of today do not only race to the finish line or shoot down UFOs. They also hunt for some Easter eggs.

Some of these Easter eggs may help level up the gaming experience, while others simply make video gaming even more fun and entertaining.

The first-ever Easter egg in a video game was discovered in a 1980 Atari video game called “Adventure.” Back then, Atari refused to include its programmers’ names in the credits for fear that other companies would steal them.

However, for one of Atari’s top programmers named Warren Robinett, not being given the credit and accolades that Atari video game programmers deserved wasn’t acceptable.

So what he did was this: when a player entered a forbidden part of the map and moved his or her avatar over a particular pixel, the message “Created by Warren Robinett” appeared.

No video game player found out about this until after Robinett left Atari. Because it would be costly for Atari to remove the message and re-release the video game, they decided to keep it instead.

And, by the way, Atari execs encouraged the inclusion of secret messages in their future titles.

What is an Easter Egg in a Movie?

Generally speaking, the birth of Easter eggs in various media types is credited to the Atari video game story that we just talked about above. Many consider it as the very first Easter egg outside of an Easter egg hunt.

However, some believe that there were already Easter eggs in movies before Easter eggs appeared in video games.

For instance, the 1975 movie “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which was released earlier than the first-ever video game with an Easter egg, had all sorts of Easter eggs from start to finish.

An Easter egg in movies can be extremely diverse. It can be anything from an inside joke, a reference, tribute, to a cameo appearance. In superhero movies, Easter eggs are often allusions to comic book characters or storylines. On certain DVDs, Easter eggs can come in the form of deleted scenes, alternate endings, and hidden DVD features.

Different people have different ideas of what can be considered as Easter eggs in movies. For instance, there are people who regard the Wilhelm scream as a type of Easter egg.

Either way, one thing stays true: Easter eggs make movies more interesting and the viewers more engaged.

Here are some recent movies that are known to have lots of Easter eggs in them:

• “Ready Player One” (2018)
• “The Lego Batman Movie” (2017)
• “Deadpool” (2016)
• “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)
• “Logan” (2017)
• “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)
• “Ralph Breaks the Internet” (2018)
• “It” (2017)
• “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” (2015)
• “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (2010)
• “Zootopia” (2016)
• “Hot Fuzz” (2007)
• “Cabin in the Woods” (2011)

What is an Easter Egg on a TV Show?

Easter eggs on TV shows are primarily meant to be spotted by hardcore fans with keen eyes. In most instances, after coming across Easter eggs, viewers have to connect the dots for the Easter eggs to make sense.

More often than not, Easter eggs are more common on TV shows that have been running for several seasons. Aside from those that give the nod to past seasons or episodes, some Easter eggs also give clues to upcoming events, twists, and storylines, thereby causing the fans to be on their toes or edge of their seats.

These are a few examples of the most noteworthy Easter eggs on some popular TV shows…

• Game of Thrones. Viewers who are fans of both Games of Thrones and the Lord of the Rings noted that one of the swords that make up the iron throne is none other than Glamdring, the sword owned by the Gandalf the Grey in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and spin-offs.

• Sherlock. In the British crime TV show, Sherlock, the main protagonist, was played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch. In the first episode of the third series, the parents of Sherlock Holmes were played by Cumberbatch’s own parents, who appeared in various TV shows back in the 70s and 80s.

• Black Mirror. Back in 2017, actor Jesse Plemons guest-starred in an episode of Black Mirror entitled “USS Callister,” where he played the role of a deranged spaceship commander. In the same episode, Plemons’ wife, actress Kirsten Dunst, made a cameo appearance that lasted two seconds only.

• Friends. During the opening credits of the first episode of the sixth season of Friends, all the names of the main cast were followed by “Arquette”. That’s because, during that time, actress Courteney Cox, who played the character Monica, married actor David Arquette.

What is an Easter Egg in a Book?

An Easter egg in a book can create excitement, especially among the die-hard fans of the title or author. In some instances, it can also create a buzz, increasing the attention toward the book and, ultimately, its sales.

The nicest thing about an Easter egg in a book is that it can be associated with a lot of things. For instance, it can foretell something that’s going to happen in the book itself or an upcoming title. It can also connect the author’s work to that of someone else’s. Sometimes, an Easter egg can give reference to something that is completely unrelated.

Did you grow up fascinated with “Alice in Wonderland”?

Then getting your hands on another Lewis Carroll book entitled “Through the Looking-Glass” will let you come across an Easter egg.

At the end of the book, there is a short poem whose lines began with letters that spelled out “Alice Pleasance Liddell,” the name of a real-life girl that inspired the fairy tale character, Alice.

By the way, Easter eggs in books may appear anywhere on the covers and in the pages. In some instances, they may be incorporated in the illustrations, too.

What is an Easter Egg on an Android Phone?

Are you a massive fan of the Android OS, and you firmly believe that iOS doesn’t stand against it? Then you may already know that there are all kinds of Easter eggs that are hidden throughout the Android OS.

Whether you have already found all of them or this is the first time you have heard about their presence, Easter eggs can make the use of Android phones more fun and interesting.

And here’s something that can keep you engaged and on the lookout for Easter eggs: every version of the Android OS comes with its own set of Easter eggs!

No matter the version, an Easter egg on an Android phone can be exposed by going to the settings and tapping on the About Phone. Tapping on the Android Version box several times will cause an Easter egg to appear.

Different versions of the Android OS come with different Easter eggs:

• Honeycomb: A “REZZZZZZZ…” toast message appears.
• Ice Cream Sandwich: The first part is an Android logo with an ice cream sandwich for a body, and the second part features ice cream sandwich-bodied Androids flying across the screen.
• Jelly Bean: The jelly bean that shows up can be turned to a smiley face by tapping on it, while long-pressing it allows you to access a mini jelly bean game.
• KitKat: The first part of the Easter egg consists of the letter “K” that you can spin, which gives way to the second part (a red Android logo) if you long-press it, and tapping it multiple times gives rise to a tiled screen.
• Lollipop: Long-pressing on the lollipop logo lets you play a game similar to Flappy Bird.
• Marshmallow: There’s also a Flappy Bird-like game Easter egg, although up to six of your family and friends can participate at the same time simply by tapping the “+” button.
• Nougat: The Easter egg does not begin and end with the Nougat logo that, when you tap on, causes a cat to appear and disappear. To access the Android Neko game, go back to the home setting, open the Quick Settings, tap the Edit button, and then drag the “???? Android Easter Egg” icon to the Quick Settings.
• Pie: Unlike previous versions of the Android OS, Pie has a second box (Android Version Number) that shows the Easter egg when it’s tapped multiple times — the Pie logo appears whose rings can be changed in color by tapping on them and changed in size by swiping.
• Android 10: Because Android 10 should have been named with a dessert that started with the letter “Q,” it doesn’t come as a surprise why the Easter egg on this version of Android involves using the numbers 1 and 0 to form a “Q,” which causes the grey and white stripes in the background to start moving.

What is an Easter Egg in an Escape Room?

Speaking of Android phones, one of the most popular video game genres on the Android OS, is an escape room. Just like what the name suggests, the goal is to escape a room by solving an assortment of puzzles as well as cracking some riddles and clues. Sometimes, there are instructions to get you started, while other times there are none.

An Easter egg in an escape room can be a message, hidden feature, or hint. So, in other words, it can make a game of escape room more fun or easier or, in some instances, both.

By the way, an escape room can be virtual, such as in the form of a video game on an Android phone, or real-life, which means that it consists of an actual room that your family and friends have to escape.

When organizing a game of escape room, the Easter eggs can come in the form of actual Easter eggs or something else.

What is an Easter Egg in Forums?

Many people won’t hesitate to run to forums each time they encounter an Easter egg in video games, movies, books, and elsewhere. But did you know that some forums may have Easter eggs themselves that participants may come across by accident? This can help keep a thread active, create new threads, or drive traffic toward them.

An Easter egg in forums can be something as simple as a change in the font face and style of a word or phrase when the mouse hovers on it. In some instances, it may play an audio file or sound bite.

There are cases in which an Easter egg in forums comes in the form of changing one’s signature trouble-free.

No matter the case, it cannot be denied that Easter eggs can make forums active and more appealing.

This can create a self-perpetuating circle: many people come to them to ask about Easter eggs in popular media, and then the presence of Easter eggs on these sites makes some of them stay to talk about them.

What is an Easter Egg on a Blog?

The internet becomes flooded with Easter-related blogs when April nears. Many of them talk about cool Easter egg decorating and hiding ideas, thereby helping to make an Easter egg hunt extra unique and memorable.

Other than imparting valuable Easter egg hunting tips and tricks, many of these sites also have Easter eggs that only a few people, including especially curious and attentive ones, will probably come across.

Easter eggs on blogs can range anywhere from jokes, messages, or features deliberately hidden from the bloggers’ view.

Some of them can be handy on Easter or any other time of the year, while others are just for some fun.

If you are a blogger yourself, being known to hide all sorts of Easter eggs on your posts can entice visitors to stay longer as well as invite potential fans to give your posts a try. But, just like many other things in life, moderation is the key when it comes to placing Easter eggs on your blogs.

What is an Easter Egg on Google?

When looking for blogs providing tips and tricks on Easter egg designing and hiding, most people turn to Google, which is the number one search engine on the planet — up to 75% of online searches is done through it.

Did you know that Google itself has some fun Easter eggs for you to discover?

The main page of Google is minimalistic, its logo, and the search bar in the dead center, surrounded by a few clickable buttons and texts. So, where could those Easter eggs be? You can uncover an Easter egg on Google simply by keying in a word and phrase, and then hitting the “Enter” button or clicking on the Google Search button.

Instantly, the corresponding Easter egg will reveal itself.

Here are some of the words to search for on Google to surprise yourself with some astonishing Easter eggs.

• “Askew”. This causes Google to be displayed crooked. Worry not because the search engine is still usable, albeit everything looks wonky.

• “The answer to the ultimate question of life”. Searching for this phrase, which is taken from the classic the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, causes Google to display a calculator with the number “42” on the virtual display. According to the book’s writer, Douglas Adams, there is no hidden meaning behind the number. It’s just that he wanted a simple answer to the question while he was writing the book, and 42 was the first thing that came to his mind.

• “Do a barrel roll”. Just like what the phrase suggests, this Easter egg causes the main page of Google to do a barrel roll. Below the search bar, a handful of suggestions (10 times, 20 times, 100 times, etc.) are listed. Click on any one of them and get ready to get dizzy!

• “Solitaire”. Are you bored? Then search for this word, and a mini solitaire game will pop out. You can choose between easy and hard modes.

• “Anagram”. Hitting the Enter button after keying in this word results in Google asking if you meant to type “nag a ram”, which is an anagram for “anagram”.

There are many other Google Easter eggs out there. Some are no longer in existence, like those created by third parties back in 2013. According to experts, it’s undeniable that Google will regularly come up with new Easter eggs.

While Alexa can make your everyday life easier, she can also make your day brighter. For instance, asking, “Alexa, who you gonna call?” will get you a “Ghostbusters!” response.

On the other hand, Alexa won’t hesitate to tell you, “No, that’s not true. That’s impossible!” when you say “Alexa, I am your father.”

There are so many other things that you can say that can get you a funny, witty, or surprising response from Alexa.

Want to have some fun? Here are 20 voice commands or questions to try:

• Alexa, show me the money!
• Alexa, may the force be with you.
• Alexa, why so serious?
• Alexa, are we in the Matrix?
• Alexa, beam me up!
• Alexa, who let the dogs out?
• Alexa, what does the fox say?
• Alexa, never gonna give you up.
• Alexa, who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
• Alexa, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
• Alexa, do you like green eggs and ham?
• Alexa, where is Chuck Norris?
• Alexa, what color is the dress?
• Alexa, where’s Waldo?
• Alexa, who’s your daddy?
• Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?
• Alexa, which comes first: the chicken or the egg?
• Alexa, why is six afraid of seven?
• Alexa, how do I get rid of a dead body?
• Alexa, your mother was a hamster!

OS X is known to have a couple of Easter eggs.

1. While the weather widget is active, click on the weather symbol while holding down the “Command” and “Alt/Option” keys. The location becomes “nowhere”. Keep on clicking to browse through the various weather symbols.
2. Open the Applications folder and switch to the tile view. Press the “Command” and “J” keys simultaneously. This causes a number of native Apple apps to reveal secret messages.

These days, Microsoft is completely devoid of Easter eggs for security reasons. However, several years ago, Microsoft Office 97 users had some fun Easter eggs to uncover.

For instance, MS Word had a hidden pinball game. On the other hand, MS Excel had a secret flight simulator game.

According to Microsoft, even though its OS and apps no longer have Easter eggs, there are still some in the video home pages of its very own search engine, Bing.

What is an Easter Egg Chicken?

If you think that chicken eggs can be white and brown only, think again. It is also possible for eggs to be blue, green, sage, yellow, and pink.

And because they can come out of chickens looking like that, they are Easter egg hunt-ready, and the chickens that lay them are referred to as “Easter eggers.”

Some breeds of chicken capable of laying eggs that are far from being boring are:

• Araucanas. These chickens were originally bred in Chile. Your head will surely turn towards them because they have no tails. However, what’s really attention-grabbing about Araucanas is that they lay eggs whose shells are blue, not only outside but also inside.

• Ameraucanas. Back in the 70s, in the US, Araucanas gave rise to Ameraucanas. Also, sometimes referred to by some as “Americanas”, they lay blue-colored eggs just like their grandfathers. They also make great pets as they tend to have fun and sweet personalities.

• Easter eggers. Although chickens that lay non-white and brown eggs are usually called “Easter eggers,” there are actual breeds of chickens known by the same name. What’s so amazing about them is that they can lay eggs in various colors, from green to pink.

Have you tried cooking and eating chicken eggs that come in colors other than white and brown? Feel free to share your experience with them in the comments section below!

Fortunately, online, there are tons of printable Easter egg templates in various sizes. There are also design templates that allow you to create professionally designed Easter egg cards, decorations, and game props.

By the way, there are a handful of reasons why chicken eggs are oblong.

First, their shape allows them to be easily squeezed by chickens out of their bodies.

Second, being oblong, it is less likely for eggs to end up rolling out of bowl-shaped nests.

Third, their shape keeps them from rolling far away from the nest, just in case.

What is an Easter Egg Plant?

No matter if it’s Easter or April Fool’s Day, you can count on an Easter egg plant for some laughter.

Easter Egg Plant produces egg-shaped and egg-sized fruits. Young ones are white in color. But, as they mature, they change into all sorts of colors, ranging from cream, yellow, orange, and green.

Unfortunately, the fruits of Easter egg plants cannot be eaten like eggplants (pun intended).

Well, you can eat them because they are not poisonous. However, there is no point in consuming them, like some people do, since they do not taste nice, and they are virtually free of essential nutrients.

It’s because of this exactly why Easter egg plants are also known as “ornamental eggplants.”

Just Before You Search for an Easter Egg

Before, Easter eggs were hard-boiled chicken eggs painted in red. The time came when they were also painted in an assortment of colors and given different designs, too.

These days, however, Easter eggs can also mean other things than just Easter eggs as we know them, and they can appear in many surprising places, too.

However, no matter the form and where they are placed, Easter eggs are meant to be hidden and, ultimately, found.